Morgan Felts

Associate General

Counsel

and Petitions

Manager

Katie Manthey

Academic

Accountability

Manager

Academic, Common

Application Pitfalls &

Interview Tips

State Charter Schools

Commission of Georgia

Academic Program – Things to Remember

Application Tips & Pitfalls

Interview Tips

Overview

Academic Program –

Things to Remember

Your petition should provide an overview of your academic

program.

It is not necessary to include all details, but petitions should

include enough detail to provide the reviewer with a good

understanding of what the school will offer.

Components: education model, instructional methods &

educational practices, curriculum, standards, assessment.

Understand the SCSC’s Comprehensive Performance Framework and

how the school will be measured academically.

Academic Program

▪Scenario: Nice Charter School is a blended learning charter school with

predominantly virtual instruction planning to locate and target students living

in the Clayton County School District. However, in order to sustain high

enrollment, the school would also like to enroll students from the surrounding

districts of Henry County and Fulton County.

▪CCRPI Scores:

▪ Clayton – 64.2

▪ Henry – 72.9

▪ Fulton – 74.7

▪ State of Georgia – 75.5

▪Questions to Answer:

▪ Based on the information available, what would be the best choice for an

attendance zone? Why?

▪ Based on the attendance zone selected, who should the school submit to?

▪ Based on the attendance zone selected, who will the school be compared to

for academic accountability?

Attendance Zone – Quiz Yourself!

▪ Education model

▪ Instructional Methods & Educational Practices

▪ Curriculum & Standards

▪ Assessment

Academic Program Components

▪ The overall approach to teaching and learning in the charter school

▪ STEM, Arts-Infused, Duel Language, College Prep.

▪ Provide reasoning for the chosen model

▪ Example: According to the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, STEM

jobs are growing faster than non-STEM jobs at a rate of 17%, compared to 10%.

▪ Someone reviewing your petitions should have a good idea of what

a school day would look like for a student in a particular grade at

your charter school

▪ Description should be cohesive across elements of the program

and concise, providing just enough detail to convince readers your

plan is achievable.

Education Model

Instructional Methods: The “how to” in the delivery of lessons.

▪ Project-based, blended, differentiation, mastery learning

Educational Practices: the structuring of classrooms and school

operations to support the academic program.

▪ Looping, multi-grade classrooms, year-round school calendar

Provide researched reasoning behind the selected methods and

features how it ties to the academic program model

▪ Example: As Soltero describes in Chapter 6: Instructional Practices and Resources in her

book, Dual Language Teaching and Learning in Two Languages, the most frequently

used teaching strategies will include heterogeneous grouping; pattern language;

predictable books; print-rich environments; preview/review; and a choice of literature

that is translated in both languages as often as possible.

▪ There is a word limit, hit the highlights, don’t repeat the entire source text

Instructional Methods and Educational Practices

Curriculum: The lessons and academic content taught in a school or in a

specific course or program

▪ Curricula can be developed in-house by teachers or administration or purchased

from a vendor (or a combination of the two)

▪ Examples: Singapore Math, Wit & Wisdom, Edgenuity & Compass

▪ Curricula for all courses should be determined before the time of the interview

▪ Petition contents should clearly explain the school’s vetting procedure and timeline for when

curriculum decisions will be made if it not solidified at time of submission

▪ Make sure it is aligned to state standards!

▪ All curriculum providers will claim they are aligned!

▪ Teachers and leaders often do curriculum mapping to ensure alignment.

Standard: Concise, written descriptions of what students are expected to

know and be able to do at a specific stage of their education. They define

the level of work that demonstrates achievement of the standards,

enabling a teacher to know “how good is good enough.”

▪ Example: S4E1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to compare and

contrast the physical attributes of stars and planets.

▪ https://www.georgiastandards.org/Georgia-Standards/Pages/default.aspx

Curriculum and Standards

▪ The systematic collection, review, and use of information about

educational programs in order to assess what students know in

order to improve learning and development.

▪ Assessment plans should include information from variety of

sources collected during various points in time, including but not

limited to, benchmark assessments (ex. MAP, ITBS, etc.) and

summative assessments (ex. Georgia Milestones).

▪ Ensure alignment to state standards!

▪ State Charter Schools are not exempt from and cannot waive

participation in mandatory state assessments.

▪ Georgia Milestones, GKIDS, ACCESS for EL Learner, Georgia Alternative

Assessment

Assessment

Fill in the Curriculum, Instructional Method, and Assessment

columns for the given Standard

Example:

Exercise

Standard Curriculum Instructional method Assessment

MGSE6.G.1 Find area of right

triangles, other triangles,

quadrilaterals, and polygons by

composing into rectangles or

decomposing into triangles and

other shapes; apply these

techniques in the context of

solving real-world and

mathematical problems.

Singapore Math

Teacher instruction

and demonstration

Individual activity

Group project

Teacher built rubric for project

Singapore Math 6b Unit test

MAP Growth Assessment (3

times a year)

Georgia Milestones

Application Tips &

Pitfalls

DO NOT:

▪ Fail to submit your petition to the appropriate local board of education.

▪ Fail to submit a letter of intent or adhere to all other local requirements if you

designate a defined attendance zone.

▪ Submit a petition to the SCSC that is not substantively the same petition you

submitted to the local board of education.

▪ Submit a petition to the SCSC in a form other than that of FluidReview platform.

▪ Fail to use the required templates contained within FluidReview (e.g. the budget

template).

▪ Attempt to submit revisions or additional documents after the submission

deadline.

Process Pitfalls

Academic Plan

▪ Lack of integration and cohesiveness

▪ Failure to address unique aspects of a program

Capacity to Operate as an LEA

▪ Failure to sufficiently address this in its entirety

Governance

▪ Out-of-state governing board members are not allowed!

▪ Failure to sufficiently address conflicts of interest

Staffing

▪ Failure to sufficiently articulate how the school will meet staffing needs

Content Pitfalls

Finances

▪ Amortizing up-front expenditures without documentation

▪ Underestimated expenditures

▪ Budgeting to create an exorbitant surplus

▪ Incorrectly including external revenue without documentation

Partnerships

▪ Lack of written support for professed partnerships

Attendance Zone

▪ Lack of community support with a defined attendance zone.

▪ Lack of adequate rationale for a statewide attendance zone.

Facility Plan

▪ Lack of sufficient progress toward securing a facility.

Content Pitfalls

A charter school should not claim a statewide attendance zone to

circumvent submitting its petition to the local board of education.

The SCSC is committed to ensuring that state charter schools that

designate a statewide attendance zone genuinely serve students from

across the state or a large geographic area.

SCSC staff will closely examine the petition of each school for

demonstration of its capacity and infrastructure to serve students from

across the state. Factors considered include:

▪ Expected student enrollment across a large geographic area;

▪ Marketing plans targeting the entire attendance zone;

▪ Transportation strategies;

▪ Governing board representation; and

▪ A well-situated facility

Schools with Statewide Attendance Zones

Petitioners should:

▪ Address all requested topics in your petition.

▪ Include all required appendices.

▪ Describe HOW you will implement your program.

▪ Describe HOW you will comply with applicable law.

▪ Avoid any implication that the school is religious or sectarian.

▪ Avoid the delegation of the responsibility of managing school operations to

someone (or entity) other than the governing board.

▪ Avoid the expectation that personnel will work for free or substantially less than

that provided by the LBOE.

▪ Address the concerns of the SCSC when submitting a subsequent petition

Passing Legal and Substantive Review: Tips for

Success

Interview Tips

Make sure to:

▪Use your time wisely.

▪Answer the question asked.

▪Allow all governing board members to participate.

▪Demonstrate your capacity for implementation.

▪Bring all necessary stakeholders.

Practical Interview Tips for Success

You really shouldn’t:

▪Waste time on long introductions.

▪Deliver prepared statements or presentations.

▪Respond to questions by stating that the answer is in the

petition.

▪Allow your partners or EMO to dominate the discussion.

▪Overly emphasize your passion while underemphasizing

knowledge and expertise.

▪Bring a huge contingency.

Practical Interview Tips for Failure

Interview Tips from the SCSC

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Questions